With the entry of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) (also referred to as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)), recording of program has become a ubiquitous feature in Digital Television (TV) domain. For example, many cable or Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) users who subscribe to a variety of TV channels record different programs broadcast over these TV channels for later viewing. Over the years, apart from the basic recording and playback functionalities, significant technological advancement has taken place in the area of PVRs. For example, advanced features like trick mode, live-pause, etc., have been added to PVR systems.
Despite these advancements, it still is very common for a recording to be interrupted and left incomplete or not started at all due to external and internal events beyond the user's control. Examples of such events may include the PVR losing power, insufficient signal strength of a broadcast channel, storage failure, etc. The recording failures may result in no recording or only an incomplete recording being available for future viewing, causing user dissatisfaction. In such circumstances, the user may attempt to access their missed programs on advanced services, like Video-on-Demand (VOD) and Catch-Up TV. Alternatively, the user may try browsing the electronic programming guide (EPG) to find the alternate instance (rebroadcast) of the program and scheduling it for recording. Alternatively, the user may have to wait until an alternate instance of the program is rebroadcasted to watch or re-record the program, which may or may not happen. VOD, Catch-Up TV, etc., are advanced technologies, which the service provider may or may not support, and whether a program will become rebroadcast will depend on the broadcaster. Because these situations are beyond the control of the user, the probability of missing the desired program increases.
Accordingly, a need exists for techniques that enable the user to complete recordings of desired programs despite the occurrence of an interruption.